The present invention relates to telescoping slide assemblies, and particularly to a slide assembly having at least two telescoping slide members. More particularly, the present invention relates to a pair of spaced-apart telescoping slide assemblies which are adapted to be releasably coupled to a piece of equipment, known as a chassis, which is positioned to lie therebetween.
Installation of a piece of electronic, console equipment or other hardware unit on a telescoping slide assembly mounted in an enclosure or hardware cabinet is accomplished using various installation tools and perhaps two or more technicians. Other types of equipment are also mounted on telescoping slide assemblies using various connectors and tools.
According to the present invention, a telescoping slide assembly includes a load-carrying slide member formed to include a slot adapted to receive a mounting post coupled to a piece of equipment and a latch coupled to the load-carrying slide member. The latch is arranged to move from a slot-closing position blocking exit of a mounting post in the slot from the slot (to retain the chassis carrying the mounting post on the load-carrying slide member) to a slot-opening position allowing movement of that mounting post into and out of the slot (to allow the chassis to be dismounted from the load-carrying slide member).
In preferred embodiments, the slot is L-shaped and includes a vertically extending entry portion and a horizontally extending post-retainer portion. The latch includes a lock body that is pivotably mounted on the load-carrying slide member and loaded by a spring to cause a tip portion of the lock body to extend across the width of L-shaped slot to block a mounting post received in the horizontally extending post-retainer portion from exiting the slot. The load-carrying slide member is included in a telescoping slide assembly having two or more slide members.
A chassis (such as a server) includes three mounting posts coupled to a left side wall of the chassis and three more mounting posts coupled to a right side wall of the chassis. Each mounting post includes an anchor coupled to the chassis side wall and a throat sized to move through the L-shaped slot to reach the post-retainer portion.
A pair of telescoping slide assemblies are mounted in a computer hardware cabinet and positioned to lie in side-by-side spaced-apart parallel relation so that the chassis will lie between the load-carrying slide member in each of the two telescoping slide assemblies. The three mounting posts on the left side wall of the chassis can be moved into three companion L-shaped slots formed in the load-carrying slide member of the left-side telescoping slide member while simultaneously the three mounting posts on the right side wall of the chassis are being moved into three companion L-shaped slots formed in the load-carrying slide member of the right-side telescoping slide assembly. A latch is pivotably mounted to lie adjacent to one of the L-shaped slots formed in each of the telescoping slide assemblies and arranged to open and then close automatically in response to movement of mounting posts in the two selected "lockable slots" to retain those mounting posts in "locked positions" in the post-retainer portions of those slots to mount the chassis securely on the load-carrying slide members without using tools and using a quick, drop-in installation procedure that may be accomplished by a single technician.
Features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.